LG G3 release date, news and rumors

LG surprised us all with last year's LG G2. It combined top flight specs with innovative features and alongside the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 it really put LG back on the mobile map.

But the company faces a bigger challenge now as it's got to keep that momentum going with an even more impressive successor - the LG G3.

Little is known about that successor yet, though a number of rumors are starting to bubble up. We've scoured the web for all the juicy gossip and put it in one place to start to paint a picture of the LG G3.

First of all, to get the completely unsurprising bit out of the way, it looks like the handset will indeed be called the LG G3, as LG has applied to trademark 'G3'. With that said, let's get down to business.

Cut to the chaseWhat is it? The sequel to 2013's excellent LG G2 When is it out? Between May and July 2014 What will it cost? It may be slightly cheaper than direct rivals

LG G3 release date and price

The LG G2 didn't arrive until September, so a launch as early as May seems a little unlikely, but reportedly it's being done to allow the G3 to better compete with the Samsung Galaxy S5, Sony Xperia Z2 and new HTC One.

For what it's worth the same source claimed the LG G Pro 2 would be launched in February, which it was right about, so there could be something to its LG G3 claims.

On the other hand German site Giga Android is claiming a "source close to the matter" has quoted a June launch, while an anonymous user of the ortud.com forum claimed the device will probably launch in July. Whatever the case it looks like it might arrive earlier in the year than the LG G2 did.

There's no word on what it might sell for yet, but this is a flagship phone we're talking about, so it will cost a lot. However LG's flagships have tended to slightly undercut Samsung and HTC rivals, so keep your fingers crossed.

We're somewhat skeptical about that though, it feels more like wishful thinking than anything grounded in reality.

1080 x 1920 seems to be the current go-to resolution for flagship phones if the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia Z2 are anything to go by. Then again, if the LG G3 intends to stand out from the crowd a QHD screen could certainly do that.

The latest octa-core version of the processor will apparently have four cores clocked at 2.2GHz and the other four clocked at 1.7GHz, which should give it a sizable boost over the LG G2.

It's worth noting that most new flagships get tipped for octa-core processors at the moment and it doesn't always pan out, while it could equally be that only certain variants of the handset will get octa-core power, as we've seen in the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4.

If this does turn out to be true though it would mean a move from the Snapdragon chipset in the LG G2 to LG's own chipset.

There's no word yet on how much RAM the LG G3 might have. The G2 has 2GB, but the LG G Pro 2 upped it to 3GB, so here's hoping for the same in the G3.

Unfortunately that's all we really know about the OS so far, but it seems a safe bet that it will use LG's Optimus UI and include recent LG innovations like Knock Code, which takes KnockOn to the next level by allowing users to tap a pattern on the screen when it's off, to both turn it on and unlock it.

LG G3 camera

Initial rumors coming out of ZDNet Korea pointed towards a 16MP sensor, but more recent leaks suggest a 13MP one.

What will probably be the first of many photos supposedly taken on the handset appeared the other day. The picture was an impressively detailed image of a cat and had a resolution of 4260 x 2342 according to the EXIF data.

That equates to 9.6MP at a 16:9 aspect ratio, which would mean the camera should be capable of taking 13MP photos at a 4:3 ratio.

The photo was posted on the ortud.com forum by someone going by the name 'Geek'. The poster claimed their friend was testing the phone and that it had a 13MP camera with optical image stabilization plus (OIS+) and that it's very similar to the snapper in the LG G Pro 2.

The posters megapixel claims match those revealed by the EXIF data, but that's something that's very easy to fake. Not to mention the fact that the device is listed as an LG-D972, which isn't a model number that we've ever come across.

If it does turn out to be real then it will have the same number of megapixels as the LG G2, but given the quality of the leaked image it looks like it could still be capable of taking significantly better photos.

Phone Arena also received a User Agent profile from an anonymous source which showed a device going by the name LG D830 (the same device as appeared in benchmarks) as having a 13MP camera along with support for 4K video playback and 120fps slow motion video.